Blogs from Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 8

It was finally time to leave South America. Though fun and although I had seen and done some amazing things, there were elements of frustration that accompanied me throughout my time there. This continued right up until the last, having had my water bottle, my universal adaptor and flip-flops nicked within a few days. WTF backpacker people. For good measure, South America decided to give me a final dose of bedbug bites to send me on my way. To be completely honest, I felt that I had had my fill of South America and that I was ready to move onto somewhere new. But South America hadn’t had its fill of me and did everything it could to stop me from leaving. Crossing from Colombia to Panama is notoriously difficult and a pain in the arse, ... read more

Déjà 3 semaines à travers le Panama... Comme prévu, nous avons commencé notre séjour au Panama par 10 jours de volontariat dans la deuxième plus grande ville du pays, David. Ville populaire, simple, sans vraiment d'importance et de choses à voir, nous nous sommes donnés à 100 % à notre nouveau travail. Celui-ci consistait à tenir la réception, accueillir les clients, s'occuper de l'ambiance générale et gérer le bar... Assis à notre réception, nous avons pu voir des dizaines et des dizaines de nationalités passer devant nous, échanger quelques instants en écoutant nos "bons conseils" pour visiter la région! Qu'est-ce que l'on a pu se marrer! Après un court passage dans la capitale Panama city (très jolie ville avec enfin un peu d'histoires à découvrir!!), le nouvel objectif est de trouver un bateau pour passer en ... read more

Geo: 8.99427, -79.5188On Tuesday, Nov 3rd we arrived at the entrance to the Panama Canal. For us this was a much anticipated highlight of the cruise, one of the main reasons we had chosen this particular trip. We were up early and on deck about 6-30am. We were due to pick up the pilot at this time and then reach the first of the locks at 8am. We could see the coast of Panama in the distance and we passed many cargo ships all lined up waiting for their turn. We grabbed a quick breakfast and coffee at the Ubersee buffet and were on Deck 9, at the bow again by 8am. It was a slow and steady progress as we gradually approached the harbour. I counted at least 50 ships all at anchor. We had ... read more

Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Panama. With an early start we left the comfort of our fortified hotel in Granada and headed for the border with Costa Rica. The ride was uneventful until the border where we first of all had to exit Nicaragua, it was stinking hot and everything was done at windows with the people inside with Airconditioning and us out there in the heat. The entry into Costa Rica was just a matter of formalities and finding our way to the stamp in our passports and on our papers to temporarily import our Motos. We chose not to use the Carnet system as they have moved on from that silly costly system over here and just issue you with a 30 or 90 day temporary import document. We have to buy some insurance ... read more